Why the Pentagon Needs a Trump Wake-Up Call: The Afghanistan Fiasco, Woke Culture, and Failing Our Troops

I read a headline from the Post about how top leaders in the DOD fear a Pentagon shake-up under Trump. They should be scared because the Pentagon needs a serious shake-up.

We all know it, and most of us who’ve served have known it for years.

But if you somehow missed the signs, let me catch you up: the epic mismanagement of the Afghanistan withdrawal, a “business-as-usual” attitude that treats real-world failures like minor inconveniences, and an over-the-top obsession with “political correctness” that’s doing more harm to troop morale than a container full of vegan MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) with no hot sauce.

Great Generals like Stanley McChrystal are pushed out in favor of “Yes men.”

To put it bluntly, we’re sacrificing what works in favor of what’s “safe” for the suits in Washington, and it’s costing us the respect of our troops, our veterans, and frankly, our own dignity on the world stage.

A Quick Recap on Afghanistan’s Mess

Let’s start with the most glaring fiasco in recent memory: Afghanistan. If you’ve read anything in the news these past two years, you know how it went down, but let’s look at the highlights. After two decades, billions of taxpayer dollars, and a tragic loss of American lives, we pulled out in a haphazard retreat.

According to the New York Times, it was a “chaotic exit,” one that left our Afghan allies stranded, our equipment in Taliban hands, and our own military families wondering why they’d sacrificed so much for so little. In an interview with The Washington Post, a former Marine captain described the withdrawal as “the biggest disgrace I’ve ever witnessed.”

When you lose the trust of the very people you’re supposed to lead, you’ve got a problem that goes beyond tactical blunders.

Yet, somehow, not one person at the top was held accountable for this disaster. I’ve seen more people held accountable from a bar in Manhattan for a bad pour than we’ve seen generals relieved of duty after Afghanistan.

The reality is that when there are no real consequences for monumental failures, there’s no incentive to improve, and this sends a very clear signal to the Defense service branches. And without improvement, we’re only setting up our troops for more of the same.

Bureaucracy and “Business as Usual”

The Pentagon’s inertia is legendary. It’s like a machine built to keep moving forward no matter what happens—good, bad, or ugly. In an organization with as much talent and as many resources as ours, “business as usual” should be a mark of excellence. But instead, it’s become a synonym for inefficiency. We see it in bloated projects, like the F-35 program, which went so over budget and over schedule that it’s become a running joke in the defense community.

Defense News reported that the F-35 is “the plane that could bankrupt America” if we’re not careful. And yet all these issues, the project just keeps rolling, sucking up money like an industrial-sized Shop-Vac.

Why I personally would welcome an Elon Musk carve-up.

This commitment to keeping the wheels spinning, come hell or high water, creates an environment where top brass can make epic mistakes with zero accountability. As long as they follow the rules and check the right boxes, they know they’re safe. Hunter S. Thompson said it best:

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.”

In the Pentagon, even getting caught doesn’t seem to matter all that much.

A Culture Shift that’s Sapping Morale

Then there’s the cultural shift. Look, I’m all for progress. But we’ve taken a hard turn in recent years toward what I’ll politely call “over-correction.” We’re so busy worrying about offending people that we’ve lost sight of the fact that the military’s primary purpose is not to be a social experiment but to defend the United States.

There’s a growing sense within the ranks that the real focus is on optics, not operations, and that’s a dangerous distraction. Many in uniform are sure to scratch their heads thinking, “I signed up to fight the enemy, not to worry about pronouns.”

Troop morale is taking a beating from this shift. You can see it in recruiting numbers, which are dropping across every branch of service. According to the Military Times, “morale is at an all-time low” as troops feel undervalued and increasingly overburdened by policies that prioritize appearances over effectiveness. We’re seeing good people walk away from the military, not because they don’t love their country, but because they feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle against a system that no longer respects their purpose or their sacrifice.

The Bottom Line

What’s the solution? It’s simple: accountability, agility, and a return to core values. We need leaders who are held responsible for their actions—who feel the sting of failure just as our troops do. We need a Pentagon that moves at the speed of conflict, not the speed of paperwork. And we need to get back to the basics, focusing on what really matters: training our troops to win wars, not to tiptoe around controversial topics.

The Pentagon is not a corporation. It’s not a social services department. It’s the nerve center of America’s defense, and it needs to operate like one. This means hard decisions, a commitment to real accountability, and a willingness to accept that not everything needs to be changed.

Our military deserves better, and frankly, so do the American people. If we don’t fix the rot at the top, we’re going to keep seeing these same mistakes played out on a global stage, with the same tragic results.

So this SEAL welcomes a Trump Pentagon shaken and then stirred.